Are you Building with H3nley in VIC?

Ummmm, what's with the natural air conditioning??!!!

ive just had a good look over our place today, carrying on for our positive inspection last week (a couple of minor fixes done already),

I must say the plaster work is a great finish on ours from what i can see

I built with Henley in 2009. Overall it was mostly a positive experience, and I'd probably give them a 4/5. Sales Guy was lovely and very accommodating, Pre start admin person was quite rude and told me different things to what our sales guy had (even though they had already been OKed by head office), Colours was great (but I was organised), Tender was great and a few other things were decided/changed on the day, and contract signing went well.

Then it all fell in a heap for a few months. We had documents that needed signing that were never sent to us and cost us a start before Christmas, and it took them 6 or 7 goes to get our final drawings right despite emails and letters/diagrams pointing out exactly where in the contract we added things and where they needed to go on the drawings. They eventually got it right, but from the time our land was ready (demo) in October, we didn't officially start until Feb.

The Admin I had during the full term of the build was lovely, and we got on well. There were lots of emails and phone calls and she was always willing to help and answer any questions I had. Our site supervisor was the same, and we got on well also. But I armed myself with knowledge and was sure to ask as many questions as possible regarding any concerns I had.

The build was fairly smooth, no rain delays and no major stuff ups. The wrong pot drawers were installed and the SS assured me that these were the standard pot drawers they always install in Henley homes...until I showed him the tender and the final drawings of what they really should look like, and they were fixed.

The whole build was soured for me, when the fit off electricians worked on something they were not contracted to touch, destroying it, and no apology was ever sent, or reimbursement of a $200 cable. It still makes me mad 3 years later.

I also wasn't terribly impressed with the maintenance people who treated our new home (1 year later) like a construction site...no respect. Filthy drop sheets in the kitchen over my clean dishes, paint drips on my floor and cigarette buts in my garden.

ANY of these issues can and do happen with ANY builder. People love to tell a negative story, so with any builder you will read more negatives than positives. As I said before, overall it was a good experience, but I won't be building again in a hurry! The most stressful thing I have ever done!!

Please feel free to go through my build thread on here, or my blog (both in my signature). We chose Henley as they had the best floorplan for our needs with the most added options and least amount of floorplan changes. I think we looked at every builder at the time

Thanks heaps for your comments....




HD

Okay, I collected my keys a few days ago ( wohoo !!) but the euphoria was short-lived. Here's what killed my weekend...
My rangehood (upgraded to Miele) gave me a fright when I turned it on as it sounded like it was going thru' a chain saw. Obviously some loose screws/metal bits left inside during installatiion.
Tried to open the sliding doors to my alfresco; wrong keys were handed to me!
Hubby's pet project (home theatre) was totally messed up; wrong dimensions for the sliding door opening!!!!!!!!
Wanted down lights in all the rooms and alfresco but only got them in the Master!
Wrong shower head istalled in Master Ensuite

Got in touch with the admin and was politely told that I had signed off on the final drawings and basically, that was just bad luck for me. I have to admit that I made the fatal mistake of not screening those dastardedly pages with a fine tooth comb and carelessly signed off on them...but hey, I expected Professional Builders to take care, and when instuctions for change is given either during Colours Appointment and the all-crucial Tender Appt, they would follow them implicitly!!! Boy, oh, boy, was I mistaken. Never assume that they will follow your instructions; in fact quite the contrary!

Story to be learnt after a bad burn....

Make very sure you screen every single page properly before signing off on those dreaded FINAL DRAWINGS. Don't rush, that was my fatal mistake here as we were trying to rush for moving in before Xmas. Yeah, we are moving in before Xmas, but not in the best of spirits!!!

I did change my administrator once, felt she was too brusque, abrupt, and not at all interested in hearing my voice when I called up. The site supervisor was good and kept way on schedule. No issues with him at all.

Oh, yes, one last thing. Argus Technologies....have second, third, fourth thoughts before you use them, please.

Overall experience with Henley...mixed bag, finishes of the house is pretty good but you need to be very careful BEFORE committing to get the job started.

Hope this will help you, good luck!

Err.. I really want to hope your not serious. Did you not do a PCI? Did you not check on the place? I sort of find this hard to believe.